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ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — The Loussac Library in Anchorage is getting a $15-million makeover focused on improving accessibility and making the building more energy efficient.
The only major work the library has had prior to this in its 30 years is a new roof, director Mary Jo Torgeson said. Loussac is the last of the libraries within the Municipality of Anchorage system to receive attention in recent years, she said.
The project, scheduled to take 18 months, will include moving the building's entrances and making heating and cooling upgrades. State money will cover nearly the entire project cost.
Torgeson told the Alaska Journal of Commerce (http://bit.ly/1rlspzk ) that the second-floor main entrance will be scrapped and moved to ground level. The idea is to eliminate confusion for first-time visitors and a long flight of concrete stairs that have been a safety concern.
A new lobby, planned between the Anchorage Assembly chambers and the Wilda Marston Theatre, will give visitors easy access to library staff, she said.
The goal is to create a welcoming, safe and more energy efficient building, she said. It currently costs about $300,000 a year to heat and cool the library, she said.
The project will include elevator changes, new meeting rooms and automated handling of returned books and other items. Currently, materials placed in book drops are shuttled up elevators to the library's fourth floor, where they're checked in. They are then sent back to the first floor for sorting and to either the second or third floor when they are reshelved or put in their original spot.
"You will put your book onto a conveyor belt where it's immediately checked in and sorted," Torgeson said.
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Information from: (Anchorage) Alaska Journal of Commerce, http://www.alaskajournal.com
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